Data published by Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.

A household is considered to be fuel poor if it has higher than typical energy costs and would be left with a disposable income below the poverty line, if it spent the required money to meet those costs. It captures the fact that fuel poverty is distinct from general poverty: not all poor households are fuel poor, and some households would not normally be considered poor but could be pushed into fuel poverty if they have high energy costs. Fuel poverty is therefore an overlapping problem of households having a low income and facing high energy costs.

The current definition of fuel poverty states that it is driven by three key factors: energy efficiency of the home; energy costs and household income.

If this figure gets smaller it means fewer households are placed into poverty by the costs of heating their homes.